They say that fences make good neighbors…but in my case I really lucked out in the neighbor category.  Not only does Maaike live around the corner, but there are lots of awesome people on my street, especially C who helped me out not once, not twice, but three (!!) times today, even though we initially had to cancel our plans because she’s sick.

Her huge amount of (last minute) help meant that my secret project was able to be finished, as in all end woven in, finishing touches applied, and ready to be mailed.  I just need to finalize the written pattern first to make sure there are no measurements/etc to be taken, and it will be done!

The resulting unexpected free time (I’d only scheduled to be finished later in the week)  meant that I could finally finish up the project that has been on my loom since January.

It’s going to be a surprise present for my aunt, but I think it’s ok to talk about here ‘cus I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read/know about my blog.  I wove until it ws 60″ long.  There are only 59″ showing in the photo, but the point of the photo was to show the lack of too much loom waste.  My mom’s scarf was cut off the loom at the proper length, but I’d overestimated how much warp I’d need.  Here you can see that my warp is completely unwound with just the loops remaining on the back beam.  (Technical term?  Not sure).

A quick hemstitch was the only finishing done to the edges.  My aunt had commented on liking the “infinity”-style scarves she’d been seeing everywhere, the ones you can wear long as a scarf or wrapped twice around your neck as a cowl.  My plan had always been to join the two short ends after twisting the scarf once, but I hadn’t really thought through how the join would work.

I debated tying knots to join the two sides and having a short fringe running down, but quickly decided that would look kinda awful.  I consulted with Maaike and had decided to hem the two edges by hand and then join them, but at the last minute called up C and asked if she could sew them together for me with her machine (that was the 3rd help of the day) and she graciously obliged.

I’ll show the resulting seam after I soak and dry it later tonight.  For now I leave you with my easy answer on how to straighten the beginner weaver’s problem of uneven selvedges- single crochet!  Because the scarf had a twist in it, it effectively became a moebius….a word my spell check doesn’t seem to believe exists.  Anyhoo, that let me start at one point, single crochet in every 2nd hole at the edge, and end up exactly right back where I started from.  The sc edge done in the working yarn gave a cute rainbow look around the scarf, and ensured that no matter which end/edge is up, the edges will always look “finished”.

Now I’m going to let it soak in a Eucalan bath for an hour or so, towel out most of the water then pop it in the dryer to really soften & full the fabric.